Avaya is a leading provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity and enhanced financial performance. Its world-class contact center and unified communications technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premise and cloud deployment options that seamlessly integrate with non-Avaya applications. The Avaya Engagement Environment enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage. Avaya’s fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

Settle down, boys. The Cubs won a series but it wasn’t really a “World Series”

I marvel at America’s fascination with baseball. Every year, from May through October, there’s little escape from it: newspaper headlines, bets, fantasy teams, daily conversations, social media shout-outs, pre- and post-game analysis, arguments, foam fingers, team jerseys and flat brim caps! When they say it’s the country’s favorite pastime, they’re serious. I’m born and raised in England so this was all new to me. After moving to the U.S., I did my best to get up to speed on the ins and outs of the game just to try to really fit in.

One thing that always struck me as odd is why the name of the season’s championship game barely raises an eyebrow. I mean World Series? How can you have a World Series when only two countries are represented (and only from the North America part of the world, no less); one of which makes up 29 of the 30 teams? As a Marketer, this gross mischaracterization likely gnaws at me more than most because I take brand promises seriously. When you make a claim, you absolutely must deliver. And the only way “World Series” delivers is if it’s inclusive of the actual world.

So how did Major League Baseball (MLB) get the name of its biggest annual event so wrong?

I put on my investigative journalist hat and headed to Google (the search engine, not the Googleplex). Here’s what I learned.

For many years, popular opinion suggested the name began because the original series had been sponsored by the New York World Telegram newspaper, thus becoming known as the “World’s Series.” As it turns out, that’s an urban legend. (I admit my mistakes, Dave Vellequette!) While the newspaper did report the game results, it left the naming of the competition to baseball officials (in hindsight, probably not the best decision).

The driver behind the name was Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1903, Dreyfuss wrote to the Boston Red Sox owner challenging the team to a “World’s Championship Series.” At the time, the Pirates were the best team in the National League and the Red Sox were the best in the American League (for those who aren’t baseball enthusiasts, MLB is split into these two divisions). The name stuck.

And there you have it. But with sincere apologies to Mr. Dreyfuss, he was a little off his game. And MLB even further off their game for never acknowledging the error.

Last night, the Chicago Cubs won a series. We can call it the North America Series, or go with the very vanilla “Championship Series.” But one thing it technically never was and never will be until a lot more countries are invited to play is today’s celebrated “World Series.”

All in good fun, baseball fans!

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Avaya Demos Wireless Location Based Services at Avaya ENGAGESM Dubai

Wireless Location Based Services (WLBS) are usually discussed in the areas of customer or guest engagement. However, there are also valuable use cases in the areas of employee engagement and facility safety. The WLBS demo at #AvayaENGAGE in Dubai highlights the employee engagement use case. Further, it demonstrates the power of the Avaya Breeze™ Platform and Unified Communications.

As a real world example … think about a public area, a store, a hotel, school, etc. A window is broken. A call reporting the incident comes to the control center. The controller needs to identify which resources are closest to the event. The closest member of the security team needs to respond to cordon off the area and determine if anyone was injured. A member of the janitorial team needs to be dispatched to clean up the glass and a member of the engineering team needs to respond to temporarily cover the opening and have the glass company implement a replacement.

The WLBS display shows the location of all devices probing the WLAN. The user interface allows the controller to sort displayed devices by role, for instance, eliminating all guest devices from the display or simply displaying the security team members. Further, the device indicators can be color coded based on the role to simplify identification. Once the correct person is identified, they can be selected on the screen, and either sent an SMS or called on their mobile device. This allows the controller to quickly identify the appropriate resource based on their location and contact them to respond to the situation.

For the #AvayaENGAGE Dubai demonstration, Avaya employees are being tracked in the common areas of the pavilion. Information about each employee has been captured in a database, including MAC address, device phone number, name and skill or role at the event. For instance, subject matter experts (SMEs) in Networking, Contact Center, and Unified Communications have been identified. If a guest has a question requiring an SME, the closest SME can be identified and contacted to see if they’re available to answer questions.

The following diagram shows all devices being tracked by the 23 WAPs participating in the WLBS demo. There were 352 guests at the time the screenshot was taken, so most of the circles are light blue. However, if you look closely, you can see a few other colors, such as the dark blue Executive and the tan Network SME. Solid dots indicate the devices are connected to the Avaya WLAN. Hollow dots indicated that the device is probing the network, but not connected to the WLAN.

As you can see, an unfiltered display, while providing crowd level information, isn’t very helpful in finding specific people or skills. The filter selections on the right of the screen provide filtering functions. Displayed devices can be limited to one or more skills or by name.

The next screenshot shows filtering enabled for executives. The dot for Jean Turgeon (JT) was selected. At this point, the operator could select to send an SMS message to JT or call his mobile device.

The WLAN at #AvayaENGAGE Dubai is implemented with Avaya 9144 WAPs. Each 802.1 wireless network client device probes the network every few seconds to determine which WAPs are available to provide service. Every WAP within the broadcast range of the network device will detect and respond to the probe message. The probe and response messages enable better network service, particularly when the device is moving and needs to change WAPs to get better service. The probe messages are done at the MAC level, therefore, each WAP in the broadcast area receives a message from every MAC address in range every few seconds.

When location services are enabled in the 9100 WAP (simple non-disruptive change via web interface or profile update in Avaya WLAN Orchestration System), each WAP sends the MAC address and distance information to a network address. In this demo, the information is sent to a Avaya Snap-in that collects the data from all of the WAPs, sorts the data based on MAC address and runs the data through a triangulation algorithm to calculate the location of the client device based on the known locations of the WAPs.

A second Avaya Snap-in manages device identity management. This Snap-in could work with something like Avaya Identity Engines to provide user information for the MAC addresses detected by the WAPs. Since the #AvayaENGAGE Dubai demo is a temporary environment, the Snap-in simply provides the ability to load a CSV (comma-separated value) file with the Avaya employee information. This provides the ability to map Avaya employee identities to the MAC addresses of their mobile devices.

The user interface Snap-in provides the display shown above. It takes the output from the triangulation Snap-in and displays it on a map in a Web browser window. It also uses information in the identity Snap-in to sort devices owned by Avaya employees vs. Engage guests, hotel employees and other hotel guests. The skill classification captured in the CSV file enables finer level filtering and skill based color indication on the screen.

When the icon for an employee on the map is selected, the pop-up frame shown above appears. Communication to the Avaya employees is performed via the Zang cloud-based communication platform. When the user selects the SMS button shown above, a screen appears to enter the message, which is sent to the Zang service which then sends to the employee’s device. If the Call button is selected, the Zang service initiates a phone call between the number shown in the Call-me-at field above and the Avaya employee’s phone number listed in the CSV import.

I’d like to say this is rocket science, but the Avaya infrastructure components and Avaya Breeze make it straight-forward architecture. Avaya believes a key to scalability is putting power in the edge devices to minimize back haul data, but also to simplify management. The intelligence of the AOS software running in the 9100s makes it simple to collect device location information. The Breeze Platform provides a full JAVA-based programing environment with object classes for Avaya communication product functionality. Finally, Zang was designed for business people to be able to programmatically integrate communication functionality into business processes without a major investment in infrastructure or expertise.

5 Key Steps to Modernizing the Federal Government

Modernizing the communications systems of government agencies creates significant challenges—and opportunities—for the new Administration. Key to improving services for the estimated 324 million Americans, the new Administration will need to modernize the communications systems of Federal Government agencies.

Four significant trends have arisen over the last several years that are challenging Federal IT systems and budgets, which can be addressed through technology and innovation for better service at more cost-efficient rates:

A three-year decline in citizen satisfaction between the kind of communications citizens expect and the kind many agencies provide today.

Security incidents in public and private networks are growing at an alarming rate across the globe, with a 38% increase in cyber threats in 2015. The total overall cost to the global economy puts the damage to enterprise businesses somewhere between $375 and $575 billion a year.

More powerful, mobile devices and the impact of consumer-oriented technologies has changed how people interact with the modern world, requiring a shift away from legacy technology That small device a growing number of the populace carries is often responsible for keeping them connected 24/7.

Citizens have expressed their desire for seamless, multi-channel experiences. In 2013, 82% of customers surveyed by Avaya and British Telecom said they prefer organizations that offer multiple channels to meet different needs.

Stepping into the Oval Office on January 20, 2017 for the first time, the new President will face many challenges. Recommendations found in the eBook can help Federal Government agencies to cost efficiently meet the needs of a new generation of Americans needing assistance.

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How Do You Create a Tech-Driven Guest Experience?

Hospitality, one of the world’s most prevalent and influential industries, is using tech-driven guest experiences to boost success. In addition to the usual business trips and family vacations, hotels are a staple for everything from weddings to global conferences to concerts and shows. At resorts, hotels, casinos and cruises, billions of people worldwide book reservations every year, each expecting a guest experience that goes above and beyond the norm.

Guests are focusing less on room service and bell boys and more on 24×7 virtual concierges and personalized mobile travel guides, which proves that the tech-driven guest experience has arrived. In a recent Information Age article, Avaya UK Managing Director Steve Rafferty explores the transformative power of a mobile app for delivering a truly custom—even predictive—guest experience. In Rafferty’s much-needed discussion about the ever-evolving hospitality industry, he concludes that “technology, customized for the hospitality industry and backed by solid in-person service, can help hoteliers today to deliver the superior and personalized experiences their guests expect.”

This leaves just one question: how can hospitality leaders go about creating this tech-driven guest experience, specifically through infrastructure investments and/or upgrades?

Many organizations have proven that a next-gen guest experience is very possible to achieve. To better ensure guest safety, the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas boasts video surveillance speeds that are up to 11 times faster than its competitors. The Rotana Group, an international hotel and entertainment chain, uses advanced contact center and IP solutions to enable secure and seamless communications across its properties worldwide, supporting a more 360-degree guest experience.

Three Ways to Create a Tech-Driven Guest Experience

So, as a leader or IT decision maker within the hospitality industry, how can you proactively address your guest’s needs with the right technology? Here are three significant ways a customer engagement platform can help drive the desired guest experience:

Innovate at the first point of contact.

There’s no denying that for most guests, the first point of contact is a hotel’s web site. A 2015 study conducted by Expedia found that consumers visit an average of 38 websites before booking a reservation. Overall, travelers tend to double the time they spend surfing the web the week before booking. Needless to say, there’s plenty of opportunity for hoteliers to elevate guests’ web experiences with the right technology.

How? As opposed to offering guests a web form (or worse, a dreaded 800 number), you can offer guests live chat support via WebRTC. Of course, guests should also be able to easily escalate their live chat session to voice if needed—and from there to video chat or screen sharing for particularly complex reservations or issues. A customer engagement platform created on an open, extensible architecture lets you support this dynamic environment with the ability to create apps that customize and extend your call center. This can help you to create new points of differentiation, or change them as you see fit. So you can ensure a stellar guest experience from the first point of contact onward.

Improve resource matching.

Front desk workers must skillfully handle calls from families, school groups, business travelers, wedding planners, convention planners, language specialists, and more. With hotels becoming more dynamic by the minute, the need for improved resource matching is vital. This means ensuring callers can be quickly and intelligently routed to the right subject matter experts—regardless of where they reside within the organization—based on rich context, KPIs and organizational goals across all channels.

An advanced customer engagement platform tracks guest conversations and consolidates customer data across all of these channels (i.e., web, mobile, contact center), creating a real-time data repository for hotel workers to track, collect and share relevant information across teams, processes and customer touch points. This ensures callers will always be paired with the best subject matter experts available. Additionally, this allows agents to focus on callers’ needs without having to ask for the same information multiple times (which, as we all know, is a huge customer frustration). Above all, the technology helps to deliver more consistent and meaningful experiences at the individual guest level.

Perhaps most importantly, hoteliers must offer guests asophisticated and integrated mobile app experience. This experience should include such things as seamlessly integrated self service and callback options, something that a customer engagement platform easily supports.
Mobility is not only advantageous for usage with guests’ mobile phones—it also addresses a need for staff to be mobile. For example, as mentioned in the point above, callers must be routed to the right subject matter experts regardless of where they reside within the organization. Mobility helps ensure subject matter experts are accessible, wherever they happen to be located on the property, for handling both guest inquires as well as internal operations.

Technology is changing the hotel guest experience. There’s ample room for innovation within the industry, and there’s a way to efficiently, securely and flexibly enable guest experiences that continually exceed expectations. How does Avaya know for sure? Avaya supplied the technology that transformed the Wynn Hotel, the Rotana Group, and many other world-renowned hospitality organizations. A customer engagement platform built on open, extensible architecture gives you an open scope, meaning anything is possible in terms of the guest experiences you want to deliver.

Avaya is a leading provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity and enhanced financial performance. Its world-class contact center and unified communications technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premise and cloud deployment options that seamlessly integrate with non-Avaya applications. The Avaya Engagement Environment enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage. Avaya’s fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.